Long-time readers will know that I am a serial entrepreneur and I love small businesses. I also love the way America used to be before Wall Street became a game of building bubbles from which to plunder other’s savings and manufacturing became a game of outsourcing. I still believe we can get back to those days, and that there is a lot going on that makes it easier for the little guy today than it was back in the good old days. Take marketing, for example. Today a small business can reach an amazing number of potential customers via the Internet. CNCCookbook has a readership of over 1 million visitors a year.
Because of all that, I try to pass along any inspirational material I can find for other small business owners or for folks who want to start their own businesses. Towards that end, I want to pass along a blog post called “The Lunch Pail Manifesto” and a book called “Turning Pro“. Both are essentially about the idea that being a Pro is more about a state of mind than about exactly what you know. It’s about how you approach your work. Both are worth a deeper look, but for a start, I give you The Lunch Pail Manifesto:
The Lunch Pail Manifesto
- We must find the work that brings our lives meaning.
- We must strive to make our work purposeful, truthful, and authentic, a pure offering to our Muse and fellow human beings.
- We must wage a lifelong war with Resistance and accept that instant gratification is an oxymoron.
- We must not speak of our work with false modesty or braggadocio.
- We must not debase our work for short term gain nor elevate it above its rightful station to inflate our ego.
- We must not covet the fruits of our work, or the fruits of others’ work.
- We must respect others’ work and offer aid to fellow professional laborers.
- We must accept that our work will never be perfect.
- We must accept that our work will never be without merit.
- We must accept that our work will never cease.
The Lunch Pail Manifesto is patterned after what it took to be a Steel Worker back in the day, and the story of that is worth the read in the blog. I can’t think of a better manifesto for someone who wants to start a business, and these 10 points certainly reflect many of the values behind CNCCookbook. Being a real Pro is hard work, it’s good work, and it’s work we love to do. But it is never easy work. I figure if I can teach my kids to sign up to live their lives according to something like The Lunch Pail Manifesto, I won’t have to worry about them so much.
What do you think?
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